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Duncan’s Building in High Street vs Digger…

I have been told by a contractor that the street in front of the Duncan’s Buildings will be opened on Monday, one way. I have had no notification of this from the CCC but I would consider that normal. ie I do not expect communication at any level. I have no idea what implications this will have for contractor parking in the area, which is quite frankly a nightmare. The irony of this is that you will enter the street from Tuam Street, go around the block and end up on, you guessed it, Tuam Street. Aren’t our roading engineers clever?

A digger has begun demolition off 8 of the Duncan’s Units, leaving the frontage standing if they are lucky. I will grab some pix today.

Digger has arrived and begun the demo.

Did you know that once these 8 units are down, the unit next to us at 141 High Street is probably one of the most damaged buildings left in the city. It has no support for its frontage and the back of it is just as bad if not worse. The floors are rotten, the roof leaks and is held up by a prop that we put in place in 2010. We should have pulled it out long ago. ….. that is tempting ….. And still LINZ and the City Council wait for the building owner to do something. As far as I can see, the owner, who is in Christchurch at the moment I might add, (back from his overseas paradise), comes to look at the building occasionally and gives the universal one fingered salute to the CCC. The law is clearly an ass.

Just how long are they going to let this go on? Is 7 years long enough for one building owner to hold up redevelopment of an area. Obviously not! This building is not unique in the street as you well know.

NB. collected some graffiti in the weekend. If the silly idiot that did this knew what was holding the bay window up he would be very afraid.

Part of our back deck is inaccessible to our tenants.

Hi ho, hi ho, I am off to clear out the factory, we have sold the last of the plant. Transfer is on the 30 December.

By the way, the lack of care that the government/council has taken with the existing businesses remaining in the CBD and fringes is worrying. The conclusion we have all reached is that they did not want us here.

One also wonders, at what point do they consider that the number of bars and cafes in the city is past saturation point? I note that bars and cafes are colonizers in a disaster, the problem in the Christchurch CBD and fringes is that we show no signs of getting past this stage. So one could say that the recovery phase has not even begun. 7 years on….

They do not talk about this either, Close your eyes government, for this is getting comical!